AND THE WINNER IS … ABC

Thanks to its annual broadcast of the Oscars, ABC wound up in first place on the Nielsen ratings chart for last week, averaging 10.68 million viewers. That figure was skewed by the 39.34 million who tuned in to Sunday night’s Oscar telecast, the No. 1 program of the week. After the awards show and the attendant red-carpet ceremonies, ABC’s highest-rated show was Modern Family, which came in at No. 19, and Castle, at No. 22. The real surprise was the less-than-triumphant performance of American Idol, which posted its worst numbers since its very first season. The Wednesday and Thursday editions of the talent show tied for seventh place — a tough blow to Fox, whose next-highest-rated show was Glee at No. 30. Once again CBS dominated the ratings chart. If there had been no Oscars telecast, CBS’s NCIS would have topped the list, followed by its companion show, NCIS Los Angeles, and then The Big Bang Theory. Among the evening newscasts, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams continued to lead, with 9.14 million viewers. (That was more than four times the number of viewers who watched Williams’s Rock Center on Wednesday night, which drew just 2.15 million viewers and tied for 87th place.) Holding down second place was ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, with 7.66 million viewers. The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley followed with 6.50 million viewers. For the week, ABC led with an average 6.5 rating and an 11 share. CBS placed second with a 6.3/10. Fox followed with a 4.1/6, while NBC trailed with a 3.4/5.